LONDON - After a year on her first part-time job and torment from a fellow employee, Jordan Rody went to her manager to lodge a complaint.

She was a teenager and working at her first job at a north London, Ont., Pizza Hut. When delivery driver Belal Sabir set his sights on harassing her, she just tried to ignore it and move on.

But she couldn’t. After Rody messed up by not putting the right dipping sauces in an order, Sabir, 28, started what a judge called “a campaign of workplace harassment” that left Rody feeling scared and vulnerable.

When she complained, her manager “didn’t take me seriously,” Rody said in an interview.

“They did not believe me. They didn’t look over any evidence at work what he was doing. They just shrugged it aside and didn’t think to look.

“I was only 16 so they just thought she just wants something exciting in the workplace to happen.”

Sabir was convicted Thursday of criminal harassment and three other charges related to him shooting out the driver’s side window of the car Rody was driving with a pellet gun while chasing her on London streets after she left her boyfriend’s house just after 1 a.m on Aug. 21, 2014.

A Daisy Red Ryder air rifle was found in the trunk of Sabir’s car after he allowed police to search it not long after Rody’s terrifying experience along Oxford St.

The convictions came after a circus of a two-day trial last week when Sabir represented himself without a lawyer, claimed he was being harassed by Rody, questioned the scope of the police investigation, accused officers of tunnel vision and said he was at home at the time of the shooting.

The harassment started long before Sabir shot out the car window. At the restaurant, he’d bump into Rody for no reason. He’d whisper that “there was murder in the air.” He threatened to knock out her kneecaps if her sisters kept coming to the restaurant to give her rides home. He once stood in her gaze with a kitchen knife in his hand.

After Rody’s initial complaint to her employer, her sister Taylor, who had worked at the restaurant, and their mother talked to the manager, but the situation was brushed off as “high school drama.”

“For a young girl to talk to someone, especially their manager about workplace harassment” is a very big step, said Rody’s sister, Taylor. “For (the manager) to not really take it seriously is an issue in itself.”

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut said the franchise owner responded to Rody’s complaint and responded quickly when her car was damaged by Sabir.

“Pizza Hut has strict policies against workplace harassment and no tolerance for employees that break the policy,” Andrew Ashton said. “We are aware that a complaint was made, and that the franchisee took corrective action to prevent further harassment. The employee’s contract was immediately terminated following the incident two years ago.”

Barbara MacQuarrie, community director for the Centre for Research and Education on Violence against Women and Children at Western University’s faculty of education, said Rody’s situation was frightening but not surprising..

“We know young employees are the highest risk group for harassment,” she said.

The case of Chatham’s Theresa Vince, who was murdered by her manager at the Sears store on her last day of work before retirement 20 years ago, is a reminder of how persistent workplace torment can lead to devastating results.

“We’ve had really serious cases in the past where seemingly low-level harassment escalates to serious violence,” MacQuarrie said. “It’s not news to us that harassment can escalate, sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly.

“Even risk assessment experts have difficulty predicting how quickly a situation will escalate or exactly when it will escalate to violence.”

In Ontario, Bill 132 just came into effect which mandates impartial third-party investigations into workplace harassment complaints. If a complainant isn’t satisfied with that investigation, they can go to the Ministry of Labour to check it.

The process could help de-escalate harassment situations. “I fully expect that this legislation will save lives,” MacQuarrie said.

There are also obligations on employers to train workers about identifying harassment and how to make complaints. “We need employers to get serious about this,” MacQuarrie said.

Superior Court Justice Johanne Morissette had little trouble convicting Sabir, believing Rody’s terrifying account of the shooting. “I see no reason to doubt or question the credibility of her evidence,” she said.

Morissette said it appeared Sabir was “influenced by shows popular on television” when questioning the police and his cross-examinations were “not relevant and in no way undermined the evidence I’ve heard.”

Morissette dismissed the evidence of Sabir’s mother who testified she believed her son was home because the light was on in his bedroom.

“Her evidence doesn’t put him in her sights,” Morissette said and added her assertion that Sabir was usually home from work by 11 p.m. was contradicted by Rody and another Pizza Hut employee called as a witness for the defence.

Sabir faces at least one year in jail for the weapons conviction alone.

His sentencing date will be scheduled at the monthly scheduling court on Oct. 11. Rody will be writing a victim impact statement and a pre-sentence report will be prepared for Sabir.

Morissette told Sabir “it would be wise” for him to retain a lawyer for his sentencing.

Rody said she’s just happy Sabir has been convicted. “I’m happy that he’s getting what he deserves and he’s paying the consequences.”